In recent times, businesses have been under severe pressure to reduce IT costs and to operate a more efficient business and IT environment. Virtualisation is fast becoming one of the most effective means to aid this demand. It provides a powerful way to streamline processes, resources, storage and hardware. Virtualisation is enabling businesses to manage their overall IT infrastructure as well as providing new ways to promote a greener working environment.

You may be thinking, I have already heard of virtualisation, this is not new. Well, you are right, it isn’t. Virtualisation has actually been in the marketplace since the mid 1990’s. However, a few new big players have entered the virtualisation space that are introducing a range of new products to meet the increase and ongoing demands of the corporate working environment. This is a great advantage for businesses as it means more variety and a range of solutions to suit diverse business needs.

Some IT professionals in the industry have said that it is Virtualisation’s “time to shine” and will be a strong influence in the coming years, creating better way to manage IT costs, create cost effective utilisation of infrastructures as well as support existing and new business initiatives. Therefore suppliers are producing something of value over and above their existing portfolio of IT products.

What is it and why do I need it?

Virtualisation put simply is a method of dividing one physical server computer into multiple virtual servers, giving each server the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server functions as a complete server and can be independently rebooted. It is a way of maximising physical resources to capitalise on the investment in hardware. Virtual machines are combined to make copying files and saving copies possible. This allows applications and operating systems (eg. Microsoft) to be moved from one virtual server to another within seconds, this ensures slim to zero downtime and provides potential for improved availability and uptime for operation as well as continuous performance and work flow.

Virtualisation techniques can also be applied to other IT infrastructure including networks, storage, laptops, applications operating systems and as well as having the potential to compliment new generation hardware.

Another major advantage is how server based virtualisation can have a huge impact on ‘green’ based initiatives. This is achieved by consolidating underutilised servers using unnecessary power. Businesses can see an improvement in capacity utilisation by lessening cooling and power requirements. This in turn reduces an environmental carbon footprint and of course, saves you money.

The traditional benefits of moving in a virtual environment include:
o Reduce the number of servers and IT hardware
o Higher physical resource utilisation
o Smaller footprints
o Improved flexibility and responsiveness
o Virtual resources can be adjusted to meet new or changing needs
o Lower your IT costs by reducing power and cooling of multiple servers
o Improved desktop manageability and security
o Fewer physical servers to manager
o Many common management tasks become much easier
o Faster recovery from hardware failures

Taking in all this information, your thoughts have probably changed from thinking that Virtualisation is no longer a ‘has been,’ but a ‘must have’ technology. Virtualisation presents a cost effective utilisation of resources and IT infrastructure. It allows for changes and progression in technology and allows a consolidated approach to your IT.

Take advantage of the new offerings available through Andor Systems and contact one of our account managers for more information TODAY!